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Abstract
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Early life adversity is a substantial risk factor for psychopathology later in life, yet the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Structural MRI enables the investigation of brain macrostructure, providing insights into how early-life stressors impact brain development and contribute to psychiatric risk. This investigation tracked developmental trajectories of 2044 participants (females = 1040) from the IMAGEN study, across three timepoints, spanning ages 14-21. MRI images were processed using FreeSurfer’s recon-all function for full cortical reconstruction and brain segmentation. Exposure to early life adversity was quantified through the Life Events Questionnaire, an adaptation of the Stressful Life-Event Questionnaire. To establish the relationship between early life adversity and brain development, a top-down mixed-effects model selection procedure was used through the lme4 package in R. Exposure to early life adversity was significantly associated with altered brain development, marked by volumetric differences in cortical and subcortical regions, across the ages of 14-21. Specifically early life adversity was linked with increased volume in the left pallidum (p < 0.001, β = 0.023), left caudal anterior cingulate (p < 0.001, β = 0.022), left caudal middle frontal (p = 0.0042, β = 0.023), and right parahippocampal gyri (p = 0.0014, β = 0.008). This study underscores the importance of longitudinal data in revealing dynamic cortical and subcortical brain changes associated with early life adversity. The associated changes, in regions related to emotional regulation, might reflect the neurobiological adaptations occurring in response to stress in early life, that may heighten psychopathology risk.
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